They always say that until a "good owner's" pitbull rips a kid's face off. It's in the dog's DNA and you can't train the aggression out of them. OP left out the option for the morons who own these dogs to be euthanized.

I 've had several pit bulls over the years, and can say from experience, they are quite docile dogs. I've never had a single one who was aggressive toward humans. I wi say, however, that they do tend to be aggressive toward other dogs. Hence their breeding purpose.

Pits in my experience, are the best dogs one can have. They are agile, loving, protective animals whom, to even my surprise, are surprisingly intelligent and very trainable. If you have ever had a pit, you would quickly see that they just want to love and protect you. They are also quite sensitive animals who react as any being would to both love and abuse.

You see videos on YouTube and other media depicting pits as aggressive attack animals who bite animal control officers and small children at a whim. What you don't see is a statistic that the media will never show you:

That put bulls have a lower attack rate than almost ANY dog breed on earth.
Some that have a higher bite/ attack rate are:

Rotweillers
The beloved golden retrievers
Shitzus
Chihuahuas
Chows (very high attack rate, possibly the highest of all dogs)
German Shepard
German police (again a very high attack rate)
Too many others to mention

It is not the dogs fault that it is built like a mini Hercules. If your child was built like this and began to hurt other people, who's fault would it be? The childs, or the parents who abused him and turned him into an aggressive monster?

My last pit, Sadie, was the sweetest little red nosed thing you could imagine. She was nothing more than a ball of muscle with nothing but love for all those she came in contact with. I used to put on a little show for friends where I would scare them to death by putting my face deep as I could put it in her mouth. I think it scared her more than it scared them.

Dumbass, I never said that pits don't cause more deaths. What I said was that PITS HAVE SOME OF THE LOWEST ATTACK RATES. Does it dawn on you that its not their fault that they are built like Hercules? OF COURSE THEY HAVE THE HIGHEST FATALITY RATE OF ANY DOG. FUCKING LOOK AT THEM, GENIUS! They are a walking ball of agile muscle. I've bred dogs for 20 years, competed in an sometimes won breeding competitions and I can certainly tell you that I have NEVER ONCE HAD A PIT THAT WAS AGGRESSIVE TOWARD HUMANS. Dipshit, do your research before posting such nonsense. A properly socialized pit who is shown love, attention, and kindness will never attack a human. The owners are the ones at fault. Fuck, I'm tired of idiots like you posting.

Fuck you asshole. Pit bulls do have the highest attack rates. Rottweiler's are a distant second. I'm sick and tired of stupid cocksuckers like you who can't admit when their wrong. They should sterilize you too so you can't further contaminate the planet!

We have pits running loose around my farm. I shoot the god-damned things on site. The coyotes too. I called the sheriff about the pits and he said to shoot any that come on my property. I'll shoot one for you buddy!

It largely depends on how the dog is socialised and trained. All the pitbulls owned by people I know are beautiful, big baby dogs. But there are definitely ones that have maimed and killed. But any dog has the potential for harm. And sadly, too many people who shouldn't own dogs do own dogs.

Definitely. People always used to freak out when they saw my dog because shes a GSD cross. Looks like a runty GSD, but they see the markings and assume she will bite. She would never harm a fly (except for going into shark feeding frenzy mode when she gets her ham wrapped meds nowadays hah) and is great with kids.

I don’t trust them. I have a friend that has a pit bull and I never let my daughter around the dog.
They don’t understand why I do that but oh well. I hear enough stories of pit bull attacks to know that my daughter should not be around one.
The dog may seem nice and happy right now but anything could set it off to kill anyone that happens to be near them.
Or atleast severely disfigure their face.

There was a woman in my city who was killed by her two pit bulls while she was walking them in the woods. Police theorize she tripped and that set off the dogs instinct to attack. I don't trust any of them, no matter how friendly they appear. They are simply too powerful and over the years have been bred to kill. And once they attack, they do not stop.

I tripped, fell and sprained my ankle while working out with a Shetland sheepdog. She stood by my side, and barked up a storm then a Clinton, Mississippi city policeman on patrol drove up, picked me up off the pavement and drove us both home. A good herding dog is like an angel!

You are a good mother, but sounds like they are good owners too.
I own pits, always have and always will. Even still I would NEVER leave my child alone with one just as I would never leave my kid or any other with ANY dog.
When I was a kid I got attacked by a small dog. The bite wasn't bad, but I was left alone for a short period of time.
Any dog can do the unspeakable.

Please give the Pitbull a chance. Not to say throw your kid in front of the dog's face, but don't be so untrusting of him/her. As long as you are there the dog usually understands your kid is yours and the most the dog will do is lick your kid.

31 U.S. dog bite-related fatalities occurred in 2016. Despite being regulated in Military Housing areas and over 900 U.S. cities, pit bulls contributed to 71% (22) of these deaths. Pit bulls make up about 6% of the total U.S. dog population.3
Together, pit bulls (22) and rottweilers (2), the second most lethal dog breed, accounted for 77% of the total recorded deaths in 2016. This same combination also accounted for 76% of all fatal attacks during the 12-year period of 2005 to 2016.
The breakdown between these two breeds is substantial over this 12-year period. From 2005 to 2016, pit bulls killed 254 Americans, about one citizen every 17 days, versus rottweilers, which killed 43, a citizen every 102 days.

So they make up 6% of the dog population in the U.S. but contributed to 71% of dog attack deaths. They are inherently dangerous no matter what anyone says. The facts speak for themselves. Every 17 days, someone in the U.S. is killed by them. These are just the fatalities. People are attacked and disfigured every day by this breed. I believe they should be phased out thru sterilization.

Again- look at those who own the breed and where and when these attacks happen. When you see stats you don't see what's behind the stats.
Poor living conditions, tough guys who mistreat them. Dogs that are put on drugs, dogs used not as pets, but as guard dogs and those on short chains all day long.

Unfortunately they are the breed of choice for those who are inner city because they are a very strong breed.

Again, I know many in the suburbs who own pitbulls, who treat them nicely and in the 20 or so years I've owned them and others have that I know - ZERO attacks. It's all in who owns them. All for checking the background of the owners prior to being able to own them. They do this in some shelters before selling a dog, maybe for pits they should do the same.

Tell that to the woman who was ripped to shreds by her two, "Babies", as she was fond of calling them, because she fell while walking them. Or at least that's what they think. Hard to say why they turned on her. The breed is unpredictable. She was also partially eaten by her beloved pets. This occurred less than 10 miles from my house in an upper middle class rural area. They should sterilize all pit bulls and just let the breed die out. That's my opinion. Your entitled to yours.

I am entitled and more so have owned pits for over 20 years now. Not ONE problem with them. They are family so it's why I back them up whenever I can. I'm not saying they are all angels, but when you look at the numbers of their population and the attacks you're more likely to win the lottery.

I agree. Any dog can and does bite but if a shin tzu or even a lab bite you get a shot and maybe some stitches. When pit bull or mixed breed Pitts attack, they aim to kill. That's the scary difference. Humans created them to be this way, humans should undo that mistake.

They are wonderful dogs. Unfortunately, they are the dog of choice for all sorts of criminals, low-lifes, thugs and scumbag welfare fraud hoodlums, pimps and fentanyl salespeople. These people abuse/neglect their animals, producing shitty dangerous dogs.

It depends on both the owner and the individual dog's temperament. There is a huge amount of genetic variation within pit bulls, and factors like how the dog was socialized also play a big role in personality. There's no one pit bull temperament, but they are very strong so the owner really has to know their pet and be in control of the situation.

Any large animal has the potential to be dangerous, and some have more aggressive personalities or are bad in certain situations (eg a dog might be generally friendly but not like men/women/kids/loud noises/other dogs/etc). Ultimately it's the owner's responsibility to know their pet and make sure it behaves properly.

Inherently, I have found that so many pit bulls are a very loving and loyal breed. I used to really detest them, I learned to instead detest the owners and people that train them to be mean and aggressive. I would avoid them at any cost but then I had a few friends that have them as pets. They are loyal, and so loving by nature. I felt bad for stereotyping them all, when it's the bad pet owners instead. In fact I would have one if I could have a pet here. That's how much I believe in them now.